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Members of the Missouri Home Care Union are asking providers of in-home services for the elderly and disabled to raise the wages of the attendants they employ. A few union members and about a hundred supporters demonstrated outside of Paraquad in St. Louis Friday to ask the nonprofit to honor a deal struck by the union and the state’s Quality Home Care Council.

One union member, Elinor Simmons, has worked as a home health care attendant for about 30 years. She said she makes $8.50 an hour, but when she asked her employer for a raise, she was denied.

“This retirement security crisis is very real,” said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the ranking member on the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging. “In Missouri, only 45 percent of private sector workers are participating in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, and that is not an anomaly.”

Missourians are getting older, but their access to health care is not keeping up.

In October, a Missouri Foundation for Health report found a need for more geriatric specialists in the state. In 2011, Missouri had 139 geriatric doctors. The report predicted that the state would need 558 by 2030.

What’s the secret to longevity? For 91-year-old Marian Meade it’s a combination of work and healthy living. A big part of both for her is Weight Watchers.

Doing nothing is anathema to Meade. She drives her 2008 ivory Cadillac with the specially ordered chrome grill and big, spiky chrome hub caps to work five times a week. At work, she operates a computer, a skill she learned not so very long ago.

According to the Pew Research Center, hundreds of thousands of Americans could live to see 100 by the year 2050. Women in France, Japan and the United States have already lived past the age of 114. With the now realistic possibility that individuals may live into the triple digits, planning ahead for retirement becomes both more important, and more challenging.

For the thousands of St. Louisans retiring and deciding how to live the latter years of their life, keeping their independence and living in the comfort of their own home is a primary concern.

That's where STL Village hopes to step in.

Part of the national Village to Village network, the goal of STL Village is to provide members with the services needed for them to stay in their own homes longer, as well as the social activities desired to help them stay connected.

Journalist Stone Phillips grew up in Ballwin, Missouri and graduated from Parkway West High School.

Phillips spent 15 years at NBC News as a co-host of Dateline NBC and served as a substitute host for NBC Nightly News, Today and Meet the Press. He now does reports on his own time at the website, Stone Phillips Reports.

Every other year, senior citizens compete in the National Senior Olympics. In Age of Champions, director Christopher Rufo shares the story of five athletes including sprinters, jumpers, and swimmers.

Host Don Marsh talks with Rufo and Bill Cannon, an 82-year-old swimmer from the St. Louis area who has earned more than 2,000 medals at the Senior Olympics. Age of Champions is set to make its debut on PBS in 2013.